Postpositional locative expressions in Dogri: a syntactic-semantic analysis of spatial, directional, and temporal relations

Abstract India’s linguistic diversity encompasses twenty-two constitutionally recognized languages, each characterized by rich morphology, extensive inflectional properties, and relatively free word order. Among these, Dogri, an Indo-Aryan language with a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) structure, stands out for its use of postpositions instead of prepositions to convey spatial relations, a feature that sets it apart from languages like English and Russian. This study explores the syntactic and semantic structures of postpositional locative expressions in Dogri, a language that remains significantly underexplored and underdocumented. The research focuses on two primary objectives: (1) to identify and classify various one-word and two-word locative case markers, both free and bound, that exhibit polysemous relationships in Dogri; and (2) to analyze how these markers semantically and syntactically link nouns or pronouns with locative expressions, enriching sentence meaning. Data were collected through a random survey of 90 native Dogri speakers from Kathua, Jammu, and Reasi districts in Jammu and Kashmir, with 45 participants responding to pictorial questionnaires and 45 participating in interviews. The analysis examines spatial, directional, and temporal locative relations, differentiating static positional references from directional shifts. The findings reveal that Dogri locative markers are predominantly postpositional, with their functions marked through inflectional affixes. This study offers valuable insights into Dogri’s unique linguistic features and contributes to understanding its typological placement within the Indo-Aryan language family.